David Helvarg
November 21, 2013
I wander alone along the grassy tree-lined bluff, long abandoned railroad track and quarter mile of bay facing crescent strand that make up the Point Molate Beach Park in my hometown of Richmond, California. Offshore pelicans, buzzards and a couple oystercatchers work the shifting tide line. Earlier a few harbor seals were checking out the scene. A few days later I return to find a young couple and their baby making use of one of the new picnic tables while an older couple walks the beach and a landscape photographer stakes out the far end of the bluff, the beginnings of a popular rediscovery of our city’s finest waterfront.